Sludge filtration apparatus having chain-type belt press with fine fibers of synthetic resin joined thereon

ABSTRACT

A sludge filtration apparatus having chain type belt press with fine fibers of synthetic resin joined thereon wherein a pressing belt ( 50 ) for pressing the sludge on and with the filtering belt makes the sludge into the sludge cake, said filtering belt includes a chain ( 20 ) being engaged with plural of sprockets of the rollers ( 40,41,42, 43 ) and a water absorbing and filtering portion ( 34 ) fixed on the chain ( 20 ), and wherein said absorbing and filtering portion ( 34 ) includes filtering units ( 33 ) and elongate grooves ( 12 ) for coupling detachably with the filtering units ( 33 ).

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to sludge filtration apparatus. Moreparticularly, it relates to sludge filtration apparatus havingchain-type belt press with fine synthetic resin fiber joined thereon,the filtering units of the belt press easily and detachably mounted, andthe sludge compressed by the belt press including not only the filteringbelt but also the pressing belt pressed by the compressing rollers.

BACKGROUND ART OF THE INVENTION

In the various kinds of industrial fields, generally, waste water isdischarged in a considerable abundance. The treatment process of thewaste water creates inevitably a considerable amount of the sludge whichcontains water. When the contained water is extracted from the sludge,it becomes so called “sludge cake”. It is preferable that the amount ofcontained water of sludge cake could be reduced as low as possible inorder to deal with it easily after fact.

In a sludge filtration apparatus of the prior art, 2 sheets of filteringfabrics or nets are arranged on the low and high portions of the mainframe respectively. And the filtering fabrics or nets move along aroundplural number of rollers under tension produced by a pair of rollers inorder to dehydrate the sludge.

In such a sludge filtration apparatus of the prior art, there areseveral problems as followings

First, the filtering fabrics or nets tend to be always and seriouslycontaminated by particles of sludge. Ilence, timely, they have to bewashed with enormous amount of water.

Second, since the filtering fabrics or nets are tensioned to dehydratethe sludge, they are continuously and excessively stretched and rubbedagainst the rollers by tension and turning force of rollers. As aresult, the fabrics or nets tend to be worn out and damaged inrelatively earlier stage to shorten lifetime thereof.

Third, in the prior art, frequent trouble of the run-off-the-trackpreventing device causes the filtering fabrics or nets to be brokendown, and tends to halt the dehydrating process of sludge repeatedly fora short time or a long time occasionally.

Fourth, the sludge filtration apparatus of the prior art has acomplicated structure which includes driving devices, tensioncontrolling devices, washing devices, run-off-the-track preventingdevices and so forth. Therefore, so many operators should check andmaintenance the equipments continuously and frequently to spend largelabor time in managing the large and complex facilities hardly. Also,frequent checking and maintenances require the casings of the equipmentsto be often opened, so that the opened equipments discharge contaminatedairs which makes bad smell and air pollution unavoidable in the factoryenvironments.

Fifth, in order to reduce the amount of the contained water of sludgecake rapidly and effectively, it would be preferable that sludge on thefiltering fabrics or nets can be pressed between a pair of roller(pressing technique) or be sucked by suction device (sucking technique).In the above prior art, however, both such a pressing technique andsucking technique could not be available to the apparatus because thesetechniques cause sludge as well as water to pass the fabrics or nets,and cause the fabrics or nets to be clogged by the dust or dirt lumpsand to be useless rapidly. So, in the prior art, in order to dehydratesludge, areas of meshes in the filtering fabrics or nets should be widenonly by applying the tension to the fabrics or nets (tension technique).But in the tension technique of prior art, workability is relativelylow, and it requires many times in processing. And the resulted sludgecake of the above prior art has relatively higher amount of containedwater.

In order to solve the problems of the prior art mentioned above, the 30applicant of this invention filed Korean Utility Model No. 1997-18821which discloses a sludge filtration apparatus including pressing rollersand a filtering belt. The filtering belt of '1997-18821 has plural offiltering units with chemical resistant fine fibers of synthetic resinjoined thereon, and a thick rubber belt on which plural of through-holesfor passing sludge water are formed and to which the filtering units areattached one after another along the longitudinal direction of therubber belt.

In the sludge filtration apparatus of '18821, in first, water of sludgeis absorbed on the fine fibers of synthetic resin of the filteringunits. Then the sludge and filtering units are pressed between a pair ofrollers to extract water from them to yield to the sludge cake. So, theresulted sludge cake of the '18821 can has less amount of containedwater than the above prior art's.

In the '18821, however, there are also some problems as followings

First, in the apparatus of '18821, the filtering units are attached tothe rubber belt in a manner that the rubber belt has a flexible rodfixed on the bottom thereof and the filtering units are tied up to theflexible rod by a metal wire. When the filtering units are worn out ordamaged and have to be replaced with new ones, operator should untie theold one from the rod and then again tie new one up manually. Therefore,so much time and labors should be required in the replacement work.

Second, in the apparatus of '18821, since only the rollers are involvedin pressing sludge on the filtering unit, there is a limit to reducingthe amount of contained water of the resulted sludge cake.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

In view of the problems of the prior art and Korean Utility Model No.1997-18821, It is an object of the present invention to provide a sludgefiltration apparatus having chain type belt press with fine fibers ofsynthetic resin joined thereon which is designed such that the filteringunits can be easily and rapidly displaced and relatively less time andlabor can be required in maintenance and repair.

And it is another object of the present invention to provide a sludgefiltration apparatus having chain type belt press with fine fibers ofsynthetic resin joined thereon which can produce the sludge cake havingless amount of contained water than any prior arts.

And it is still another object of the present invention to provide asludge filtration apparatus having chain type belt press with finefibers of synthetic resin joined thereon in which it can be realizedthat the whole time for stopping the processing due to trouble ormaintenance should be spent as less as possible.

In accordance with the invention, a sludge filtration apparatus havingchain type belt press with fine fibers of synthetic resin joined thereoncomprising: a frame; a filtering belt for receiving and carrying thesludge supplied by the sludge supplier; a driving roller fixed on theframe for driving the filtering belt wound therearound; a tensioncontrolling means fixed on the frame for controlling the tension of thefiltering belt out of the closed casing of the apparatus; and guiderollers fixed on the frame for guide the filtering belt woundtherearound;

wherein said sludge filtering apparatus further comprising a pressingbelt for pressing the sludge on and with the filtering belt to make thesludge into the sludge cake, said pressing belt being driven by adriving roller and pressed by plural of compressing rollers;

wherein said filtering belt includes: a chain being engaged with pluralof sprockets of the driving roller, the tension controlling roller andthe guide rollers; and a water absorbing and filtering portion fixed onthe chain for filtering the sludge and absorbing water contained in it ;wherein said absorbing and filtering portion includes; filtering unitseach of them having the chemical resistant fine fibers of syntheticresin in a predetermined width and thickness, a binding rod for holdingthe fine fibers by binding together the ends of fibers therearound, anda holding piece for fitting detachably the binding rod therein; elongategrooves each of them having triangle shape in cross section for fittingdetachably the holding piece therein; and support plates, each of themformed integrally with the elongate groove for supporting the finefibers thereon, said each of support plates extending horizontally fromboth sides of the upper ends of the elongate grooves and having pluralof water passing holes for passing water extracted from the fine fibers.

In a preferred embodiment, the sludge filtration apparatus furthercomprising; cleaning means for washing off and brushing remainingparticle of the sludge from the fine fibers which have had the sludgecake removed previously upper stream therefrom; a bath for receiving theremoved particle and waste water from the cleaning means and otherparts; and an absorbing and drying device disposed in last downstream ofthe filtering belt for absorbing and drying the fine fibers which havebeen cleaned previously upper stream.

In a another preferred embodiment, the sludge filtration apparatusfurther comprising; a tension controlling means for controlling thetension of the pressing belt out of closed casing of the apparatus; andguide rollers for the pressing belt wound therearound; wherein saidcompressing rollers are arranged in line along the pressing belt andcompressing strength of said compressing rollers gradually increase inthe direction of downstream of the filtering belt.

In a still another preferred embodiment, in the sludge filtrationapparatus mentioned above, said pressing belt has V shape protrudingbelts on both ends thereof and therearound, at least one of the pressingbelt driving roller, pressing belt tension controlling roller, pressingbelt guide rollers and compressing rollers have V shape grooves on bothend thereof and therearound respectively, and said V shape groovesbeing, in complementary shape, engaged with the V shape protruding beltsto prevent the pressing belt from running off the track.

In the still another embodiment, in the sludge filtration apparatusmentioned above, said chain has coupling units connected in line witheach other and support pieces integrally formed with the coupling unitsand extending horizontally in the direction perpendicular to streamdirection of the filtering belt, whereby said coupling units and theteeth of said sprockets can be engaged with each other respectively toprevent the filtering belt from running off the track.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

A preferred embodiment of the invention is discussed in detail belowwith reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a whole schematic view of the sludge filtration apparatushaving belt press with fine fibers of synthetic resin joined thereon,constructed in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a filtering belt as main portion of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 is a exploded perspective view of the filtering belt.

FIG. 4 is a partly exploded plan view of the filtering belt.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a roller for driving the filtering belt,taken along the line II—II of the FIG. 1

FIG. 6 are the sectional view of a driving roller engaged with thepressing belt.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a whole schematic view of the sludge filtration apparatushaving belt press with fine fibers of synthetic resin joined thereon,constructed in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.In the drawing, reference numeral “1” indicates a frame on which bothdriving roller 40 and tension controlling roller 41 for a filtering beltare mounted (see both left and right ends of the apparatus in FIG. 1).FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of the filtering belt which is woundaround the driving roller 40 and tension controlling roller 41 as shownin FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 1, the tension of the filtering belt can be controlledby adjusting a worm device 54 coupled with tension controlling roller41. Upper the filtering belt, a pressing belt 50 is wound around adriving roller 44 and tension controlling roller 45. The belt pressincludes the filtering belt and the pressing belt 50 which are pressedagainst with each other by compressing rollers 51 in operation. Thecompressing strength of the rollers 51 gradually increase in thedirection of downstream (i.e., in the clockwise direction of thefiltering belt) to effectively dehydrate the sludge on the fine fibers30 of the filtering belt.

Referring to FIG. 6, at least one of the rollers 44, 45, 51 and 52 have“V” shape grooves 53 formed around the both ends thereof. And thepressing belt 50 has “V” shape protruding belts 53a around both endsthereof. The grooves 53 and the protruding belts 53 are so complementaryin shape that they can be well engaged with each other to prevent thepressing belt 50 around the rollers 44, 45, 51 and 52 from running offthe track in operation of the apparatus.

Referring to FIG. 1, tension of the pressing belt 50 can be controlledby adjusting the first worm device 54 a coupled with tension controllingroller 45. The pressing strength in close contact between the pressingbelt 50 and the filtering belt can be controlled by adjusting the secondworm devices 54 b coupled with the compressing rollers 51.

The worm device 54 for the filtering belt and the first and second wormdevices 54 a, 54 b can be all operated out of the casing of theapparatus to prevent contaminated air from coming out to theenvironments. And instead of the structure of the worms shown in thedrawings, they may be constructed by using hydraulic cylinders.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 61 indicates first shower which supplieswater to the filtering belt to wash the remaining debris or dust ofsludge therefrom after the sludge cake has been removed from thefiltering belt, reference numeral 62 indicates brush for brushing theremaining particles of sludge from the fine fibers 30 (see FIG. 2) alsoafter the sludge cake has been removed. And reference numeral 60indicates a washing bath which the washing rods 63 are disposed to hitand scratch the fine fibers 30 and remove the remaining dust from themfurther downstream of the filtering belt from the rods 63, also issecond washer 61 a disposed to further wash the filtering belt includingthe fine fibers 30. Still further downstream from the second washer 61a, there is disposed a water absorbing and drying device 64 for dryingthe fine fibers 30 of the filtering belt.

Referring to FIG. 2 and 3, the filtering belt which is one of the mainportion of the present invention will be described hereinafter. FIG. 2is a sectional view of the filtering belt, and FIG. 3 is a perspectiveview of the filtering belt in which a filtering units 33 are removedfrom therefrom.

Referring to FIG. 2, the filtering belt of the present inventionincludes a water absorbing and filtering portion 34 and a chain 20 forcarrying the water absorbing and filtering portion 34.

The water absorbing and filtering portion 34 includes the filteringunits 33 which has a binding rod 31 with a predetermined width andthickness of flux of chemical resistant fine fibers bound thereon and aholding piece 32 for fitting the binding rod 31 therein. Also theportion 34 includes elongate grooves 12 through which the holding piece32 are fitted to combine the filtering units 33 with the portion 34 inone body, and a support plates 10 extending horizontally in thedirection of the left and right of the upper portion of the elongategrooves 12. The support plates 10 are formed integrally with the grooves12 as shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 2 shows the filtering units 33 are inserted detachably in theelongate grooves 12 having triangle shape in cross section, also nofiltering unit 33 inserted in the groove 12 of the leftmost portion ofthe drawing. Also, the holding pieces 32 have a triangle shape in crosssection to match with the elongate grooves

The lower portion of the FIG. 3 shows the structure of the filteringunits 33 in which it includes the fine fibers 30 of which flux has apredetermined width and thickness, the binding rods 31 for binding thefine fibers 30, and the holding piece 32 for fitting detachably thebinding rods 31 therein. As shown in the upper portion of FIG. 3, thesupport plates 10 have a predetermined size of water passing holesarranged along the longitudinal direction thereof. The adjacent supportplates 10 arc separated from each other at interval enough not to betouched with each other in operation in order to prevent the plates 10from being contacted with each other in operation and producing noisesin the industrial fields.

Returning to FIG. 2, the chain 20 is joined with the water absorbing andfiltering portion 34 by welding between the support pieces 22 of thechain and bottom of the elongate grooves 12. That is, the chain 20 hasplural of coupling units 21 and support pieces 22 which are formedintegrally with the coupling units 21 and joined with the elongategrooves 12 by welding or other joining methods.

As shown in FIG. 1, the chain 20 is engaged with the sprockets 40 a, 41a, 42 aand 43 a, of the rollers. FIG. 2 shows in enlarged view, that thecoupling units 21 of the chain 20 (solid line) are engaged with thesprockets (one point dotted line).

The operation of the sludge filtration apparatus according to theembodiment of present invention will be described hereinafter.

In the sludge filtration apparatus of the present invention, first, asludge supplying portion (shown left and upper portion of the FIG. 1)supplies the sludge onto the filtering belt. Then, the fine fibers 30 ofthe filtering belt absorb water from the sludge by capillarity thereof.The density of the sludge suitable to the apparatus of the presentinvention would be 7 wt % or more. If the density of the sludge is lessthan 7 wt %, it is preferable that the sludge could be concentrated noless than 7 wt % by concentration method or deposition method.

The filtering belt moves in the clockwise direction by the drivingroller 40, while the pressing belt 50 moves in the counterclockwisedirection by the driving roller 44. Therefore, while the sludge on thefiltering belt is moving in the direction of downstream, it can bepressed and changed into the sludge cake between the filtering belt andthe pressing belt 50 under the pressing force of the compressing rollers51. The resulted sludge cake has much less amount of contained water. Asdescribed above, since the pressing strength of the rollers 51 graduallyincreases in the direction of the downstream, the effectiveness ofdehydrating the sludge can be further improved. Also, in the apparatusof the present invention, since the sludge is pressed not only by thecompressing rollers 51 but also by the pressing belt 50, theeffectiveness of dehydrating the sludge can be still higher than theprior arts.

As shown in FIG. 6, the combination of the V shape protruding belt 53 awith the V shape grooves 53 of the rollers 44, 45, 51 and 52 can preventthe pressing belt 50 from running off the track in operation, asmentioned above. And the combination of the chain 20 with the sprockets40 a, 41 a, 42 a and 43 a can prevent the filtering belt from runningoff the track in operation, also as mentioned above. FIG. 4 shows therelationship between the water absorbing and filtering portion 34 andchain 20, and as a example, FIG. 5 shows the driving roller 40 with thesprockets 40 a integrally joined around it. So, from the FIG. 4 and FIG.5 it can be imagined that the coupling units 21 of the chain 20 would beengaged with the teeth of the sprockets.

Now, returning to the course of process, the sludge cake which haspassed beyond the press belt 50 leaves the filtering belt and then isreceived in the sludge cake receiving part (not shown, but correspondingto the rightest portion of the filtering belt in the FIG. 1). Then thefiltering belt which has no sludge cake thereon passes sequently thefirst shower (61) for washing the remaining debris or dust of sludge onthe filtering belt out, the brush 62 for brushing the remainingparticles of the sludge from it, washing rods 63 in the washing bath 60for shaking off the still remaining dust from it, the second shower 61a, and the water absorbing and drying device 64 for dehydrating the finefibers 30 of the filtering belt. Then the process in the apparatuscompletes one cycle. And for the next cycle, the filtering belt returnsto the original place to receive the sludge which is being dropped fromthe sludge supplier as mentioned above. Then the process repeats thesame cycle as of previous one.

In accordance with the sludge filtration apparatus mentioned above, thepresent invention can have the working effects as followings:

First, since the filtering units 33 are detachably coupled with thefiltering belt in a manner that the holding pieces 32 of the filteringunits 33 are engaged with the elongate grooves 12 of the water absorbingand filtering portion 34, the filtering unit 33 which may be worn out orbreakdown can be easily and quickly replaced with new one.

Second, not only the compressing rollers 51 of which compressingstrength gradually increase in the direction of downstream of thefiltering belt, but also the pressing belt 50 which cooperates withfiltering belt is involved in pressing the sludge on the filtering belt,so that the effectiveness of the dehydrating the sludge and the finefibers (30) can be further improved to obtain the sludge cake havingmuch less amount of contained water than any prior art.

Third, in the apparatus of the present invention, the complexrunning-off-the-track preventing equipment is not required, As a result,it is possible to obtain the apparatus of which configuration can besmaller in size, tighter and more simple, and also to minimize the halttime of process and time and fee for maintenance.

Modification to the above would be obvious to those of ordinary skill inthe art, but would not bring the invention so modified beyond the scopeof the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A sludge filtration apparatus having chain type belt press with fine fibers of synthetic resin joined thereon, said apparatus comprising: a frame (1); a filtering belt for receiving and carrying the sludge supplied by the sludge supplier; a driving roller (40) fixed on the frame for driving the filtering belt wound therearound; a tension controlling means (41, 54) fixed on the frame for controlling the tension of the filtering belt out of the closed casing of the apparatus; and guide rollers (42, 43) fixed on the frame for guide the filtering belt wound therearound; wherein said sludge filtering apparatus further comprising a pressing belt (50) for pressing the sludge on and with the filtering belt to make the sludge into the sludge cake, said pressing belt (50) being driven by a driving roller (44) and pressed by plural of compressing rollers (51); wherein said filtering belt includes: a chain (20) being engaged with plural of sprockets (40 a, 41 a, 42 a, 43 a) of the driving roller (40), the tension controlling roller (41) and the guide rollers (42, 43); and a water absorbing and filtering portion (34) fixed on the chain (20) for filtering the sludge and absorbing water contained in it; wherein said absorbing and filtering portion (34) includes; filtering units (33), each of them having the chemical resistant fine fibers (30) of synthetic resin in a predetermined width and thickness, a binding rod (31) for holding the fine fibers (30) by binding together the ends of fibers (30) therearound, and a holding piece (32) for fitting detachably the binding rod (31) therein; elongate grooves (12) each of them having triangle shape in cross section for fitting detachably the holding piece (32) therein; and support plates (10), each of them formed integrally with the elongate groove (12) for supporting the fine fibers (30) thereon, said each of support plates (10) extending horizontally from both sides of the upper ends of the elongate grooves (12) and having plural of water passing holes (11) for passing water extracted from the fine fibers (30).
 2. A sludge filtration apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the sludge filtration apparatus further comprising; cleaning means (61, 61 a, 62, 63) for washing off and brushing remaining particle of the sludge from the fine fibers (30) which have had the sludge cake removed previously upperstream therefrom; a bath (60) for receiving the removed particle and waste water from the cleaning means and other parts; and an absorbing and drying device (64) disposed in last downstream of the filtering belt for absorbing and drying the fine fiber (30) which have been cleaned previously upperstream.
 3. A sludge filtration apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the sludge filtration apparatus further comprising; a tension controlling means (45, 54 a) for controlling the tension of the pressing belt (50) out of closed casing of the apparatus; and guide rollers (52) for the pressing belt (50) wound therearound; wherein said compressing rollers (51) are arranged in line along the pressing belt and compressing strength of said compressing rollers (51) gradually increase in the direction of downstream of the filtering belt.
 4. A sludge filtration apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein said pressing belt (50) has V shape protruding belts (53 a) on both ends thereof and therearound, at least one of the pressing belt driving roller (44), pressing belt tension controlling roller (45), pressing belt guide rollers (52) and compressing rollers (51) have V shape grooves (53) on both end thereof and therearound respectively, and said V shape grooves (53) being, in complementary shape, engaged with the V shape protruding belts (53 a) to prevent the pressing belt (50) from running off the track.
 5. A sludge filtration apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said chain (20) has coupling units (21) connected in line with each other and support pieces (22) integrally formed with the coupling units (21) and extending horizontally in the direction perpendicular to stream direction of the filtering belt, whereby said coupling units (21) and the teeth of said sprockets (40 a, 41 a, 42 a and 43 a) can be engaged with each other respectively to prevent the filtering belt from running off the track. 